CARY – Google once offered Epic Games $147 million to include its Fortnite game in the Google app store but Epic initially rejected the deal, according to documents seen in the Epic-Google antitrust suit that opened on Monday.
Tech news site The Verge’s Sean Hollister wrote Wednesday night that he saw information at the trial in federal court confirming the offering.
Epic had objected to the 30% sales fee Google charged for apps sold in its Google Play Store just as it did to similar fees charged by Apple. The fees eventually triggered Epic’s suits against both tech giants.
Fortnite launched in 2017 and has become a global powerhouse.
Take that, Apple & Google: Fortnite scores biggest weekend ever
“Google agreed to invest $147M in incremental funding over 3 years ‘in an … effort to convince Epic to launch Fortnite on Play,'” Hollister wrote.
Google said “Fortnite’s absence could result in $130M (up to $250M) direct revenue loss with Play” and that there could be a “downstream impact of $550M (up to $3.6B) potential revenue loss if broad contagion to other developers.”
Epic Games alleges ‘bribe and block’ strategy in antitrust suit against Google
Epic later accepted the deal. according to Games Industry Biz, , launched Fortnite then came up with a tech bypass for both Apple and Google stores that enabled users to bypass the companies’ restrictions. That move led to the ejection of Fortnite from both stories and led to Epic’s suits.
Testimony in the Google-Epic trial resumes today.
The Supreme Court has in its hands appeals in the Apple-Epic trial in which Apple won all but one counts.
Read more at The Verge and at Games Industry Biz.
